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Montgomery County asks residents to hand over their guns

Montgomery County residents handed over 111 guns, 11 BB guns, 10,000 rounds of ammunition and a grenade at Saturday's statewide gun turn-in day, according to county police spokeswoman Lucille Baur.

Among the 111 guns were 68 hand guns, 27 rifles -- including at least one AK-47 -- 15 shot guns and a tiny pen gun, Baur said. In addition to the guns, police also received a sword and two canisters of tear gas, which were turned in by a former D.C. police officer who told police they left over from riots in 1968.

"A successful day," Baur said.

Organized by state Attorney General Doug Gansler in coordination with local police departments, the event included 24 stations across the state where residents could anonymously hand over their unwanted firearms and ammunition.

...Individual motivations for turning over the weapons included desires to keep guns out of the hands of young children and fears that a home burglary could cause a gun to end up in the wrong hands, officials described.

Germantown resident Blaine Clarke turned in a BB gun, some hunting ammunition that is no longer legal to use and an old "Saturday night special" .38 caliber revolver that belonged to his dad and he said is probably not registered.
"I've had that forever in the closet," he said of the revolver. "Just time to get rid of stuff.
Others offered similar reasons for turning over their weapons, and many didn't know much about the guns they were handing in.
"The woman who brought in these two long guns, she didn't know how much they were worth," said Montgomery County Sheriff's Office Deputy Steve Austin, who was collecting guns at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg. "But she knew they were guns, and she wanted to get them out of her house."

111 guns from a county with a population of 1 million isn't really something to be concerned with. Like the article said, it was mostly consisting of inherited guns that've been collecting dust in the closet for years.